2015 Lotus Elise - 2010 Paris Auto Show

The Lotus edict of less is more may have left the room.

Replacing the Elise will not be easy. The company thankfully has given themselves four years to complete the task. The design shown at Paris falls right in line with the multitude of other Lotus concepts displayed. Unfortunately, it can be challenging to tell which is which at a glance. All of them seem to have spawned from the Lotus Evora architecture, which might explain some of that similarity.

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According to Lotus the Elise will retain its transverse mid-mounted Toyota-sourced inline-4 engine, although now with 2.0 liters of displacement. Power is stated as being near 300, which leads us to expect some type of forced induction, however neither turbocharging nor supercharging has been specified. Lotus still has a few years to figure that part out.

Unfortunately, this new Elise concept seems to put a priority on ease of ingress/egress and practicality. We hope the car will come with a conventional manual transmission. We're pretty certain it will gain weight, and although this new Elise may still be fun to drive and easier to live with, we suspect there will be a distinct loss of character if this Lotus tips the scales at, say, 2400 lb. In a world where cars are getting heavier every year, the Elise was a breath of fresh air when it hit the U.S. market in 2004. Its 2000-lb. curb weight immediately made it unique. As Lamborghini and Ferrari continually strive to shave weight for future products, it's especially odd that Lotus, a company that has always prided itself on the "less is more" philosophy, might stray from that path.

As the new Elise is merely an early concept, Lotus has lost its way yet. We'll reserve that judgment until 2015 when the keys are in our hands and the 2010 Paris Auto Show is but a distant memory.